Serbia Migrants and
refugees in Belgrade evicted to camps22.5.17
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| | TweetIn early May
volunteer group No Name Kitchen warned of the impending
eviction of over 1,000 migrants and refugees living in disused
buildings in Belgrade, who were recently removed by the government
to camps, in some cases overcrowded and with poor sanitary conditions.

People were evicted in
order to make way for a waterfront gentrification project that
has been cause of mass protests in Belgrade in recent years.

Dear Facebook friends,
given the silence kept by the media, we need to spread the bad
news happening in the barracks in Belgrade.

Some days ago, the Commissariat
for Refugees and Migration (highest governmental agency for refugees
in Serbia) informed us of the eviction and demolition happening
in 20 days of the more than 1000 people living the abandoned
barracks behind the train station. Those living in the parking
behind the bus station - roughly 500 people - will also be evicted.
Effectively, this means no one can be in Serbia without officially
seeking asylum.

The Commissariat gathered
independent volunteers and residents to several meetings, showing
an outrageous racism (relating migration with crime) and colonial
paternalism (refusing to listen to the opinion and doubts of
the refugees themselves).

Refugees are being forced
to join the Serbian asylum system and relocated to remote camps.
In less than 20 days, the barracks - home to over 1500 people
for the last months - will be demolished in favor of the Belgrade
Waterfront gentrification project, funded by Emirati petrodollars.

The anxiety and uncertainty
of the residents of the barracks could not be any greater. Since
yesterday, buses are being loaded with people who, with no other
choice, are being taken to mass refugee camps. Even a boy told
us last night that, after being taken to the police station,
he was forced to blindly sign the asylum request. Some prefer
to stay in the barracks, asking us independent volunteers what
to do.

But no. We have no answer.
Both the Serbian government and our governments in Europe refuse
to listen to the refugees, who have been trapped since the Balkan
Route was closed, already more than a year ago.

Serbia (which no one talks
about) is becoming a impenetrable wall denying migrants their
fundamental right of freedom of movement. They are simply requesting
international protection to get the dignified life that has been
taken away from them. Meanwhile, the European Union is working
again on outsourcing its borders. Proof of this is the latest
news from FRONTEX, which is now allowed to deploy troops on the
borders of Macedonia and Serbia, with complete immunity to act
outside the laws of these countries, according to Statewatch.*

These days are being frantic.
No Name Kitchen will keep working every night while listening
to the residents of the barracks, with whom we have been working
hand in hand during all these past months. Please, we ask you
to spread this situation. Lets be the channel of the despair
that is being experienced in Belgrade and create a wave of solidarity
that takes down the borders of the European Fortress.

&COPY; Statewatch ISSN 1756-851X.
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